Hestia Tobacco: Cigarettes So Natural That They Have To Be Cigars

You can’t smoke in New York City without lighting up outside a bar–so it takes a real good tobacco to get your smoking COED staffers out into this miserable weather. Fortunately, we’ve been investing in the Hestia Tobacco brand lately. We like to think of it as the tobacco that’s as fiercely independent as your typical COED staffer. Except that our ex-girlfriends seem to label us fairly easily, while Hestia Tobacco is so fiercely independent that it can’t even be called a cigarette.

That’s kind of a shame. Mostly because you don’t want to hear an anti-government rant here, but there’s something wrong with a world where Hestia Tobacco can make a cigarette that’s too natural to actually be called a cigarette. That’s because the proud Hestia brand isn’t just dedicated to making the incredibly pure cigarettes out of American-grown tobacco. The fine folks at Hestia also refuse to wrap their tobacco in corporate papers that are chemically treated to smolder instead of burn.

That’s why Hestia Tobacco isn’t in the cigarette business. That sure looks like a pack full of cigarettes, but Hestia wraps their cedar-aged tobacco in what’s mostly tobacco fiber. By government standards, that puts Hestia Tobacco in the cigar business.

We don’t mind. By any name, Hestia Tobacco offers up the cleanest tobacco we’ve had in a long time. We’ve smoked enough cheap packs to know the pain of all the bastardized tobacco that’s ruined plenty of brands. Too many cigarettes are stuffed full of tobacco that’s really just tobacco pulp. It’s the equivalent of how processed cheese ends up having to be labeled a “cheese food product.”

Except that cheese food product can make some excellent nachos, while reconstituted tobacco is always a disappointment. So we’re pretty happy with the Hestia brand–especially since their website offers a subscription service, because you don’t want to be wandering around Manhattan in this weather trying to find the things. And, most importantly, Hestia cigars don’t look like cigarillos or clove cigarettes or anything else that you’d be embarrassed to be smoking in even the finest weather. Hestia’s look just natural enough to start the occasional conversation, and the natural wrapping is as stylish as the brand’s packaging.

Oh, are we suggesting that smoking can make you look cool? Heaven forbid–but you know what’s cool? Hestia’s casual warning that, “We all know they are addictive.” Damn straight. Especially when they taste this good.